ai4bharat/Pralekha huggingface dataset:
Special Service and Features
BIS celebrates World Standard Day and its 75 years existence by way of “Awareness Walk” focusing on Standards and Quality
Bureau of Indian Standards  – The National Standards Body of India, under the Ministry of Consumers Affairs and Food & Public Distribution, Government of India; being instrumental in ensuring the quality and standards of products and services. BIS Southern Regional Office at Chennai had organised a mini Walkathon to create awareness on standards, quality and hallmarking of various goods. This mini walkathon was organised on 16th October 2022 at 6.00 AM at Anna University ground, Chennai and walked for 3.00 km.
Mr. U S P Yadav Scientist-F & Deputy Director General-South, BIS  and the Chief Guest Ms Shiny Wilson, former Indian Athlete and Padmashri Awardee had flag off the Mini Walkathon event. Nearly 500 number of school students, college students and BIS employees have participated in the event. Speaking on the event, the DDGS BIS, elaborated on the need for consumers to learn about the various standards like Product Certification , Compulsory Registration Scheme , Hallmarking of Gold and Silver jewellery that provide conformity services and certify the quality of goods. He added that the BIS also provides certification services to foreign manufacturers. He explains that BIS initiatives have created a sustainable solution for Standards formulation. BIS regularly conducts various awareness drives in schools and professional institutions to create quality and standards understanding.
Also, Mrs. Shiny Wilson, said that Walkathons are a good tool to bring together like-minded people and spread knowledge about issues and causes. However, one should regularly exercise and keep the body healthy. A good fitness routine keeps both body and mind sharp. This initiative by BIS is certainly the right step to create a better understanding of Safety and quality assurance standards.
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
BIS officials conduct enforcement raid at Cococart ventures, Parashnath compound Bhiwandi, Thane
Mumbai : 6 January 2023
Acting on information received regarding violation of Toys quality control order  a team of officials from Bureau of Indian Standard, Mumbai Branch Office-II, conducted an Enforcement raid on 03.01.2023 at M/s Cococart ventures private limited, Parashnath compound Bhiwandi, Thane, Maharashtra.
During the raid it was found that the company imported Kinder joy chocolate T 150 GM's variety which comes along with soft toys. As per Toys quality control order  all toys shall be BIS certified as per IS 9873-part 1and shall possess standard mark with valid BIS license number on it. Soft toys found during the search and seizure were not BIS certified as per IS 9873 which is a violation of Toys quality control order. Sufficient quantity of material found during the raid were seized and invoice bills copies were collected which indicates that the firm was involved in selling these toys to various prominent locations in airports which is violation of Clause 17 of BIS Act 2016. Action is being initiated to file a case in the court of law for the offence.
As per BIS Act - 2016, No person shall manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit for sale any such goods without a Standard mark, except under a valid licence. Citizens may please access BIS Act-2016 for Penalty & Obligations of licence holder, seller, etc through link.
The Violation of QCO order is punishable with imprisonment up to two years or a fine of minimum Rs. 2,00,000 or both as per BIS Act 2016.
Therefore, all consumers are encouraged to use BIS CARE App  to find out the list of mandatory products which shall be BIS certified and also requested to ascertain the genuineness of ISI Mark on the product before making purchase, by visiting BIS website http://www.bis.gov.in. Citizens are requested that in case they come across any instance where mandatory products were being sold without BIS certification or misuse of ISI Mark on any product, the same may be informed to the Head, MUBO-II, Western Regional Office, BIS, 2nd Floor, NTH, F-10, MIDC, Andheri , Mumbai - 400 093. Such complaints can also be made by E-mail at the address hmubo2@bis.gov.in. The source of such information will be kept confidential.
About BIS
Bureau of Indian Standard  is National Standard Body of India, established under the BIS Act 2016. The main activities of BIS are, Standard Formulation, Product Certification, Laboratory Testing & System Certification. BIS is contributing to the national economy by providing safe, reliable and quality goods, minimizing health hazards to consumers, protecting the environment etc. The standards and product certification schemes of BIS apart from benefiting the consumer and industries, also support various public policies especially product safety, consumer protection, food safety, environment protection, building and construction etc.
Source: BIS
CP/PM
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Ministry of Power
REC launches ‘SUGAM REC’, a mobile app for 54EC Bonds Investors
REC Limited, the Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Power, has launched a mobile application, exclusively for current and future investors in REC’s 54EC Capital Gain Tax Exemption Bonds. Named ‘SUGAM REC’, the mobile app will offer investors with complete details of their investment in REC 54EC Bonds.
Investors will be able to download their e-bond certificates, apply for fresh investment, download important forms related to updating of KYC, and also connect with REC’s Investor Cell via call / email / WhatsApp.
The mobile application can be downloaded free of charge, on Android and iOS platforms.
Given below are the links for quick and easy download of the application:
On Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rec.org
On iOS: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/sugam-rec/id6468639853
‘SUGAM REC’ is amongst one of REC’s many digital initiatives.
What are Section 54EC Bonds?
Section 54EC Bonds are a type of fixed income financial instruments which provide tax exemption under capital gains to investors, under Section 54EC of the Income Tax Act.
Read more on this here.
More on REC’s 54EC Capital Gain Tax Exemption Bonds here.
About REC Limited
REC Limited is an NBFC focusing on Power Sector Financing and Development across India. Established in 1969, REC Limited has completed over fifty years of operations. It provides financial assistance to state electricity boards, state governments, central/state power utilities, independent power producers, rural electric cooperatives and private sector utilities. Its business activities involve financing projects in the complete power sector value chain; for various types of projects including Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Renewable Energy. REC’s funding illuminates every fourth bulb in India. REC has recently diversified into financing infrastructure and logistics sector as well.
Ministry of Science & Technology
India’s first indigenous Overhauser Magnetometer may show the way towards reducing costs of sensing experiments essential for geomagnetic sampling
Indian scientists have developed an Overhauser Magnetometer, one of the most accurate magnetometers extensively used by all magnetic observatories around the world, making way for reducing the cost of sampling and sensing experiments essential for geomagnetic sampling. The sensor installed at Alibag Magnetic Observatory  can absolve India’s dependence on commercial OVH magnetometers for performing geomagnetic field measurements.
OVH magnetometers are known for their higher accuracy, higher sensitivity, and efficient power consumption and hence find applications in all magnetic observatories worldwide as well as in international space programs. It has so far been imported for such purposes in India.
In order to reduce dependence on imports, the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism , an autonomous research institution under DST, Government of India, has developed the magnetometer as part of its technology development program.
A team from IIG’s instrumentation division used various spectroscopic tools and theoretical simulations to understand the working of the OVH sensor. They further performed various control experiments, such as varying the sensor composition and examined the sensor’s performance. This helped them to optimize the sensor parameters and its associated electronics, which finally led to a very efficient and stable OVH sensor.
Experiments with the sensor installed at the Alibag Magnetic Observatory  for geomagnetic sampling found that the sensor reproduced the geomagnetic diurnal variations accurately and precisely showed the signatures of various space weather events such as geomagnetic storms, sudden impulses, etc. The performance of this indigenously made magnetometer is at par with a commercial OVH sensor that is currently installed at the magnetic observatories of IIG.
The sensor is currently being tested for its long-term stability. The group is further excited to adapt their sensor for the outer space environment to support the existing Indian space research program. In addition, the group feels that the understanding of this project, specifically the underlying mechanism of Dynamic Nuclear Polarization , would also be of potential help to develop a sensitive magnetic resonance imaging  instrument.
Figure 1: The left panel shows the IIG’s OVH magnetometer, and the right panel shows plot of the Geomagnetic field vs time for two months, June-July, 2020, at the Alibag Magnetic Observatory for the two OVH sensors: IIG  and Commercial .
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SNC/RR
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Ministry of Defence
LT GEN TARUN KUMAR CHAWLA TAKES OVER AS DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ARTILLERY
Lt Gen Tarun Kumar Chawla, AVSM will assume the appointment of the Director General of Artillery on 01 August 2021. He takes over the appointment from Lt Gen K Ravi Prasad, PVSM, VSM who superannuated on 31 July 2021 after completing thirty nine years of distinguished service in the Army.
The General officer is an alumnus of St Thomas High School, Dehradun and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. He was commissioned into a Field Regiment of Artillery in June 1984 and has served across a wide spectrum of terrain profiles and tenanted a host of command, staff and instructional appointments. He commanded an Artillery Regiment both in the Western and Eastern sectors. He has commanded an Artillery Brigade on the Line of Control and later an Artillery Division in the Western Theatre.
An alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College Wellington, College of Defence Management Secunderabad and National Defence College New Delhi, he has held prestigious staff appointments at the Military Secretary branch, erstwhile Perspective  Planning directorate, Infantry Division in the Northern sector and finally at the Financial Planning branch, where he was the Director General. He has been an instructor in the School of Artillery Deolali and College of Defence Management Secunderabad, apart from tenanting a staff appointment at the Defence Services Staff College Wellington.
The General officer served as a Military Observer at the United Nations Mission in Liberia . His civil qualifications include dual Master degree in Defence & Strategic Studies and Weapon Systems and a Master of Philosophy degree in Defence and Strategic Studies.
Ministry of Finance
Auction for Sale  of  ‘7.06% GS 2028’,  ‘7.26% GS 2033’ and  ‘7.36% GS 2052’
The Government of India  has announced the sale  of  “7.06% Government Security 2028” for a notified amount of Rs 8,000 crore  through price based auction using uniform price method,  “7.26% Government Security 2033” for a notified amount of Rs 14,000 crore  through price based auction using uniform price method and  “7.36% Government Security 2052” for a notified amount of Rs 11,000 crore  through price based auction using multiple price method. GoI will have the option to retain additional subscription up to Rs. 2,000 crore against each security mentioned above. The auctions will be conducted by the Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai Office, Fort, Mumbai on May 04, 2023 .
Up to 5% of the notified amount of the sale of the securities will be allotted to eligible individuals and institutions as per the Scheme for Non-Competitive Bidding Facility in the Auction of Government Securities.
Both competitive and non-competitive bids for the auction should be submitted in electronic format on the Reserve Bank of India Core Banking Solution  system on May 04, 2023. The non-competitive bids should be submitted between 10:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. and the competitive bids should be submitted between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
The result of the auctions will be announced on May 04, 2023  and payment by successful bidders will be on May 08, 2023 .
The Securities will be eligible for “When Issued” trading in accordance with the guidelines on ‘When Issued transactions in Central Government Securities’ issued by the Reserve Bank of India vide circular No. RBI/2018-19/25 dated July 24, 2018 as amended from time to time.
Prime Minister's Office
Amarnath Yatra is a divine and grand manifestation of our heritage: PM
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has wished devotees on the occasion of Amarnath Yatra. He said that Shri Amarnath Yatra is a divine and grand form of our heritage.
In a tweet, the Prime Minister said;
“श्री अमरनाथ जी की यात्रा हमारी विरासत का एक दिव्य और भव्य स्वरूप है। मेरी कामना है कि बाबा बर्फानी के आशीर्वाद से सभी श्रद्धालुओं के जीवन में नए उत्साह और नई ऊर्जा का संचार हो, साथ ही अमृतकाल में हमारा देश संकल्प से सिद्धि की ओर तेजी से आगे बढ़े। जय बाबा बर्फानी!”
Prime Minister's Office
PM to participate in the birth centenary celebrations of ‘Jatir Pita’ Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, tomorrow via video message
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi shall participate in the 100th Birth Anniversary celebrations of ‘Jatir Pita’ Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in Bangladesh tomorrow via video message.
Due to COVID-19, the events planned for March 17 in Bangladesh will be without any public gatherings.
Ministry of Labour & Employment
Union Minister of State  for Labour & Employment to launch software applications and instruction manuals with questionnaire for five All India Surveys at Chandigarh tomorrow
Hon’ble Union Minister of State  for Labour & Employment, Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar will launch the software applications for five All India Surveys being conducted by Labour Bureau in Chandigarh tomorrow. Shri Gangwar will also release the instruction manuals with questionnaire for five All India Surveys. Shri Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Labour & Employment and Shri D.P.S. Negi, Senior Labour & Employment Advisor and Director General, Labour Bureau will also be present at the event.
The five surveys and their objectives being undertaken by Labour Bureau are as follows:
1. All India Survey on Domestic Workers
Objective: To estimate the proportion of domestic workers in the workforce by major states and all-India and percentage distribution of these domestic workers / households that employ them by important socio-demographic key characteristics.
2. All India Survey on Migrant workers
Objective: To estimate the number of migrant workers in India and also to collect information on their living conditions, working conditions and other socio-economic conditions.
3. All India Survey on Employment Generated by Professionals
Objective:  To estimate the total number of active professionals in the country &  To capture the employment generated by these professionals.
4. All India Survey on Employment Generated in Transport Sector
Objective: To assess the employment generated in Transport Sector in India.
5. All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey
Objective: To measure relative change in employment situation over successive quarters in sizeable segment of Non-Farm economy covering 8 important sectors of the Indian economy.
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
1,26,373 jewellers register for hallmarking till 30 November 2021
4.29 Crore pieces of jewellery is hallmarked from 1 July 2021 till 30 November 2021
Hallmarking is made mandatory from June 23, 2021 for 14, 18, & 22 carat of gold jewellery/artefacts in 256 districts of the country where there is at least one Assaying and Hallmarking Centre 
The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today informed that the number of jewelers who got themselves registered for hallmarking as on 30 November 2021 is1,26,373 and the number of pieces of jewellery that have been hallmarked since the implementation of mandatory hallmarking of gold ornaments  is 4.29 Crore.
Hallmarking had been made mandatory from January15, 2021. However, in view of the pandemic situation, the date was extended to June 1, 2021. Thereafter, there were detailed stakeholders’ consultations with representatives from jewellery manufacturers, exporters, wholesalers, retailers, AHCs, consumer organizations etc. Taking into account the ground situation, Hallmarking has been made mandatory from June 23, 2021 for 14, 18, & 22 carat of gold jewellery/artefacts in 256 districts of the country where there is at least one Assaying and Hallmarking Centre .
An advisory committee, which also included representatives of jewellers and AHCs, has been constituted by the Government to deal with the issues faced in the implementation of mandatory hallmarking. Some of the genuine concerns addressed by the Government interalia include the following:-
Jeweller registration has been made free and valid for lifetime; Jewellers having turnover less than Rs.40 lakhs have been exempted from mandatory hallmarking; Polki, jadaau and kundanjewellery have been exempted from mandatory hallmarking; Indian standard for Hallmarking was amended to provide for the hallmarking of 20, 23 and 24 carats of gold jewellery; Indian Standard has also been amended to provide for hallmarking of mixed lot of jewellery; Hallmarking Unique ID  based system has been introduced to ensure greater transparency in the functioning of the gold jewellery industry and for providing credibility of hallmark to the consumers. Further, the software has been made user-friendly and a Help Desk has been set up at BIS Headquarters and also at all BIS Branch Offices, to resolve the issues and problems of the jewellers and AHCs.
Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas
Joint Venture for LPG Pipeline Projects
Establishment of LPG Pipeline infrastructure is taken up by the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies  based on techno-commercial feasibility studies. LPG Pipelines are laid from refineries to LPG bottling plants. Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board  established under the PNGRB Act, 2006, in the year 2007, is the authority to grant authorization for laying of LPG pipelines. Entities that propose to lay, build, operate or expand a pipeline apply to the Board for obtaining authorisation under the Act.
The total length of LPG Pipeline network in the country is 8,296 km comprising of the following pipelines:-
- Panipat-Jalandhar LPG Pipeline 
- Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG pipeline ; 
- Ennore-Trichy-Madurai LPG pipeline 
- Kandla-Gorkhpur LPG pipeline 
- Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline 
- Vizag-Secunderabad LPG pipeline 
- Mangalore-Hassan-Mysuru-Yediyuru LPG pipeline 
- Uran-Chakan/Shikrapur LPG pipeline 
- Hassan-Cherlapally LPG pipeline 
- Mumbai-Uran LPG pipeline 
- Kochi-Coimbatore-Salem LPG pipeline 
Three OMCs namely, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited have formed a consortium for submitting the bid to PNGRB for authorization for Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG Pipeline. PNGRB has granted authorization to the consortium for implementing and operating Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG Pipeline.
This information was given by the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.
Ministry of Science & Technology
India’s AI supercomputer Param Siddhi 63rd among top 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world
Param Siddhi, thehigh performance computing-artificial intelligence  supercomputer established under National Supercomputing Mission  at C-DAC has achieved global ranking of 63 in TOP 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world released on 16th November 2020.
The AI system will strengthen application development of packages in areas such as advanced materials, computational chemistry & astrophysics, and several packages being developed under the mission on platform for drug design and preventive health care system, flood forecasting package for flood prone metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Patna and Guwahati. This will accelerate R&D in war against COVID-19 through faster simulations, medical imaging, genome sequencing and forecasting and is a boon for Indian masses and for start-Ups and MSMEs in particular.
It is a boon for application developers and will help testing of weather forecasting packages by NCMRWF & IITM, geo-exploration packages for oil and gas recovery; packages for aero-design studies; computational physics and mathematical applications and even online courses for education.
The supercomputer with Rpeak of 5.267 Petaflops and 4.6 Petaflops Rmax  was conceived by C-DAC and developed jointly withsupport of Department of Science and Technology , Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology  under NSM.
“It is a historical first. India today has one of the largest supercomputer infrastructures in the world and that is evidenced by the ranking that Param Siddhi-AI has received today,” said Secretary Department of Science & Technology, Professor Ashutosh Sharma.
“I truly believe that Param Siddhi-AI will go a long way in empowering our national academic and R&D institutions as well as industries and start-ups spread over the country networked on the national supercomputer grid over the National Knowledge Network ”, Prof. Sharma added.
Prof Ashutosh Sharma pointed out that with the infusion of Param Siddhi-AI, the scientific and technology community in the country will further be enabled and empowered to solve multidisciplinary grand challenges of healthcare, agriculture, education, energy, cybersecurity, space, AI applications, weather and climate modelling, urban planning to name a few.”
“This is a compelling piece of our journey in Atmanirbharta through Science Technology & Innovation,” he stressed.
Param Siddhi Supercomputer is built on theNVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference architecture networking along with C-DAC’s indigenously developed HPC-AI engine, software frameworks and cloud platform and will help deep learning, visual computing, virtual reality, accelerated computing, as well as graphics virtualization.
President's Secretariat
Prime Minister of Guinea calls on the President
Dr Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Guinea called on the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, at Rashtrapati Bhavan today .
Welcoming the Prime Minister of Guinea and his delegation to India, the President said that recent high level visits have imparted a new momentum to India-Guinea bilateral ties. He expressed confidence that this visit will mark yet another high point.
The President was happy to note that India is among the top trading partners of Guinea. He said that India-Guinea bilateral trade in 2017-18 reached almost US$ 900 million, representing an increase of nearly 40 per cent from the previous year. He said that both sides must continue to work to see how we can further enhance bilateral trade in the coming years.